Welcome! Introduce Yourself!

[Priest Kristoph]

Priest Kristoph here! I found out about your game through doing searches related to The Riddle of Steel. I took a few longsword lessons from Jake Norwood a little while back before getting ordained to the priesthood (yes, for real).

Been a role-player most of my life, and have a serious interest in European Martial Arts. I love me some D&D, but I've been hankering lately for something more crunchy, gritty, less fantasy.

Anyway, can't wait to see more!

-Fr. Chris

[higgins]

Welcome to the Grand Heresy Forums, Priest Kristoph!

It's awesome to have another HEMA guy on the boards and trained by Jake, no less. Are you doing mainly longsword like Jake, or do you dabble in other weapons as well?

[Priest Kristoph]

Uh, well, I'd like to stress the "few lessons" part.

Since my ordination I've found it difficult to make the time to attend the school he set up. Check it out!

http://www.xkdf.org/#about

In any case, I've got a wooden waster in my trunk that I do like to wield about on occasion. I'd love to afford an Albion blade sometime in my life. I have a copy of Christian Tobler's "Fighting With the German Longsword that I use.

As far as other weapons, the only one I've used besides the Longsword was the Messer, which is actually Jake's personal favorite weapon, or used to be. His initiation rite for new students was he'd toss you a Dussack (the hardened leather training Messer) and then say "do your best". Then he'd pretty much proceed to wail on you until he decided you'd had enough. Great learning experience, and I managed to land a couple actual hits on him. I felt a genuine sense of achievement, even though I came away bruised as hell. I think it was just his way of gauging your fighting spirit.

[higgins]

Niiiice!

I'm from Baltics myself, so, we don't have HEMA around here. As such, I take part in HMB stuff, which is mainly sword & shield. It's arguably not as realistic as the thrusts are illegal for us, but hey... at least we look good.

[Priest Kristoph]

Cool! I have some friends locally (Washington, DC area) who participate in similar things.

In any case, you probably already know about this stuff, but here's a couple more links that are super-cool.

http://hemaalliance.com/

http://wiktenauer.com/wiki/Main_Page

Also, although there are no clubs in Estonia that I could find, I did find this list:

http://www.hroarr.com/organisations-and-clubs/europe/

There are 4 clubs in Finland and one in Latvia, so, you know, if you've got time on your hands and gas in the tank, you could probably check one of those out.

[Daeruin]

It's definitely good to have another HEMAist around. I'm two degrees away from Jake myself. I'm in the HEMA club he founded out in Utah before he moved.

Higgins, you definitely look cool. Are you in the video or any of the pictures? I have to admit that, not knowing anything about the fighting style, it looks like a bunch of people just flailing around. No offense.

[higgins]

Also, although there are no clubs in Estonia that I could find, I did find this list:

I knew about the Finnish clubs, but not about the Riga one. Thanks!

Are you in the video or any of the pictures?

Alas, I was stuck down with viral pneumonia during that tourney. The knight in black and blue is my main sparring partner though.

I have to admit that, not knowing anything about the fighting style, it looks like a bunch of people just flailing around. No offense.

The tourneys can definitely be a mixed bag in that regard, but the ones that flail around tend to drop out of the competition rather quickly. I guess the wild flailing attracts a larger number of clicks though, which is probably why those particular fights were featured by the attending media.

[Daeruin]

I have to admit that, not knowing anything about the fighting style, it looks like a bunch of people just flailing around. No offense.

The tourneys can definitely be a mixed bag in that regard, but the ones that flail around tend to drop out of the competition rather quickly. I guess the wild flailing attracts a larger number of clicks though, which is probably why those particular fights were featured by the attending media.

That would make sense. Real fighting techniques that keep you safe just aren't as flashy to the uninitiated. One time my club was sparring at a Ren. fair and several people walked away in disgust saying "They're hardly even hitting each other." Anyway, it's not like I'm a great fighter myself. I definitely feel like I'm flailing much of the time. Haha.

[Mozusuke]

Hello. Mozusuke here, emerging form lurking mode.

As a gamer I come from a background of C&S (every edition), DragonQuest, Harn, that sort of thing. But about 2 years ago I got involved the whole Blade thing, and have posted a few times on that forum. I really love this genus of rules, and I think some of the ideas I have seen on the blogs are really sweet and clever. For example, the ideas on order/timing are very neat. Looking forward enormously to getting my hands on this ruleset!

[higgins]

Welcome to the boards, Mozusuke!

It's good to hear that our blog gets some traffic. Is that how you found us, btw?

[Mozusuke]

Not really, sorry. I'm trying to remember how I came across you, but apart from the possibility of a mention on the Blade forums, I also spent a long time prior to that lurking on the TROS forums. I think it was probably there that I got intimations of Song of Steel, which was the branding I first became aware of you through.

So whilst I never played TROS I tracked the latter days of that forum, and form there got involved in Blade which I now play, but also started to track you! Up to this point I did that mainly by greedily digesting the news posts on this site, and very much enjoying what I see.

[higgins]

Ah, yes. One the very last posts on TROSfans was indeed our game announcement.

[quinnthomsen]

Seems like it's been a while since anyone introduced themselves...

Buy I'm still game. Hi, my name's Quinn, I play games and have swords.

"Hi Quinn..."

I missed the TROS days, and came recently to Blade of the Iron Throne, (which I like quite a bit) but those two sources led me here, and I wonder if this game might fit my idea better. We are just about to start something...and so if the beta gets out in time, I'd be thrilled to give that a try.

[higgins]

Hey, Quinn!

Sorry for the delay in approving you! Apparently you managed to sign up right before I was headed to the Big Tourney and I've been checking the forums from my phone lately. Clearly a mistake, as Tapatalk doesn't show me the posts that I need to approve! I didn't even think of that! I'll try to be more vigilant from now on and use a regular browser to check the forums at least once a day.

As for the beta getting ready in time... I think the layout was around page 42 the last time I hit the refresh.

[quinnthomsen]

No worries at all.

I'm excited to see though. Not as excited as you are I'm sure....but excited.
Quinn